Titanic and the Mystery Ship

by Senan Molony

  7553. Did you report that to the Captain? — Yes.

  7554. Where did you go? — Into the chart-room.

  7555. Was the chart-room door shut? — Yes.

  7556. Did you open the door and go in? — Yes

  7559. Did you give him the report you were ordered to give him? — Yes.

  7560. What did the Captain say? — He asked me were they all white?

  7561. The rockets? — Yes, ‘Were there any colours in the rockets at all?’

  7562. What did you tell him? — I told him that they were all white.

  7563. Did he give any instructions? — No.

  7564. Did he say anything further? — He asked me the time.

  7565. What was the time? — Five minutes past two by the wheelhouse clock…

  7570. [The Commissioner] Was he awake? — Yes, Sir.

  7571. [The Solicitor General] Did you return to the bridge? — Yes.

  7572. Did you report that you had done what you were told to do? — Yes.

  The above is a rather ordinary summation. But Gibson will later be heavily pressurised to agree with an apparent desire on the court’s part to believe that the word ‘disappeared’ must mean ‘sank’ rather than ‘went out of sight’, which was Stone’s original phrase.

  It now seems as if counsel and the Commissioner are anxious to fit the evidence to the theory that the Californian’s nearby ship was the Titanic, rather than allowing the evidence to speak for itself.

  7610. When the ship disappeared she had got a little on to your port bow? — [Gibson] Yes.

  [The Commissioner] Will you ask him what he understood by the word ‘disappeared’?

  7611. [The Solicitor General] Yes, my Lord. [To the Witness] You say you were told to report that the ship had disappeared. What did you understand by [the word] ‘disappeared’? — We could not see anything more of her.

  7612. [The Commissioner] Did it convey to you, and did the man who was speaking to you, in your opinion, intend to convey that the ship had gone down? That is what I understand by disappearing. Did you understand him to mean that? — No, my Lord.

  7613. What did you understand him to mean – that she had steamed away through the ice? — That she had gone out of sight.

  7614. [The Commissioner] Oh, yes. A ship goes out of sight when she goes down to the bottom. What did you understand by the word ‘disappeared’? — That is all I could understand about it.

  7615. [The Commissioner] A ship that had been sending up rockets; then you are told to go to the Captain and say: ‘That ship which has been sending up rockets has disappeared’. What did you understand the Second Officer to mean? Did not you understand him to mean that she had gone to the bottom? — No.

  7616. Then what did you understand, that she had steamed away through the ice? — [No answer]

  Perhaps Gibson gives no answer because the question appears rhetorical, or maybe he is just tired of denying the Commissioner’s preconceived notion. We do not know if he nodded his head or made any other non-verbal reply, but we know that he has already denied the proposition repeatedly.

  Some have used Gibson’s ‘no answer’ to suggest that he is tongue-tied, but it is impossible to know whether he simply shrugged, or made a face, or whether the Commissioner’s tone of voice suggested he no longer wanted an answer. Perhaps the next question, from the Solicitor General, which changed the subject, came in quickly on top, since the court had exhausted this line of enquiry. Gibson has already clearly denied that the word ‘disappeared’ could have meant ‘gone to the bottom’.

  We shall return to other elements in the above passages, but it is clear that Stone continued to see the disappearing steamer for twenty minutes more after Gibson had returned at 2.05 a.m. This would bring the Californian time to 2.25 a.m. And if the Californian and Titanic had the same times, as the British Inquiry liked to think (the court equating Groves’ ship stopping at 11.40 Californian time with the Titanic hitting an iceberg at 11.40 her time) then, by 2.25 a.m. (for both), Titanic’s lights were not visible because she had quite simply gone to the bottom. So Stone could not be seeing her at 2.25 a.m. as she had foundered (by common agreement of those who survived the disaster) by 2.20 a.m. And despite the persistence of the twelve-minute theory, it would mean an even worse outcome for the case against Captain Lord. Now Stone would be seeing his departing steamer at 2.37 a.m. Titanic time (2.25 plus twelve) – some seventeen minutes after the Titanic had foundered.

  But we know instead that Titanic officer Boxhall (US Inquiry, p.918): ‘At 11.46 p.m., ship’s time, it was 10.13… New York time’. Officer Lightoller testified to the same during Pitman’s US testimony. We know Californian was separately one hour fifty minutes ahead of New York time (although Wireless Operator Cyril Evans claimed one hour fifty-five minutes ahead). The direct 1912 evidence that Titanic was one hour thirty-three minutes ahead of New York (as against latter-day guessing) thus suggests Californian was at least seventeen minutes ahead of Titanic time, not behind her. If this is the case, then Stone seeing his stern light at 2.25 a.m. equates to the more reasonable time (for those implacably set against the Californian) of 2.08 a.m. Titanic time – she has not yet sunk.

  All this would be very well, were it not for the stern light that Stone should not be seeing!

  Here is Stone:

  7971. Did you make any report to the Captain about this disappearance? — When I sent Gibson down at two o’clock I told him she was disappearing in the SW.

  7972. [The Commissioner] Did you say to Gibson ‘Tell the Captain she is disappearing’, or did you say ‘Tell the Captain she has disappeared’, which did you say? — I could not have said that she had disappeared, because I could still see her stern light. I saw this light for 20 minutes after that.

  Let us pause here to ponder the enormity of Stone’s statement. Gibson saw the wheelhouse clock showing 2.05 a.m. He comes back and reports to Stone. Then Stone sees the steamer for twenty minutes thereafter. Stone’s account of continued viewing appears to disagree with Gibson’s original statement leading up to the visit down below to the captain: ‘Just after two o’clock she was then about two points on the port bow, she disappeared from sight and nothing was seen of her again’. Yet Stone’s own original statement goes on to say: ‘At 2.45 I again whistled down again and told you we had seen no more lights and that the steamer had steamed away to the SW and was now out of sight…’ This agrees completely with his sworn evidence. Gibson’s phrasing – ‘nothing was seen of her again’ – may suggest no more rockets, or may simply be a way of leading into his next action, telling the captain that she has ‘disappeared’ (Stone: ‘steamed away’) to the south-west.

  Gibson, significantly, was not questioned about whether he saw any light after he came back from visiting the captain and made his report to the second officer. What comes next ends his evidence, and the repeated verbal pummelling by counsel has its effect after a prolonged grilling:

  7741. Could you see whether she was steaming away? — No. The Second Officer was taking bearings of her all the time.

  7742. [The Commissioner] The message he sent you with was that she disappeared? — Yes.

  7743. [Mr Harbinson] Not that she steamed away, but disappeared? — Yes.

  7744. The Captain made no reply? — He asked me if there were any colours in the lights, or were they all white.

  7745. You saw no coloured rockets? — No.

  7746. As a matter of fact isn’t there a code of rockets for use at sea? Do you know as a matter of fact whether there is or isn’t? — I know now there are only distress rockets used at sea and private signals used near the shore. [Not true in 1912]

  7747. And what colour are distress rockets? — White – any colour at all.

  7748. Did you say anything to the Second Officer, Mr. Stone, or did he say anything to you, with reference to these rockets that were repeatedly sent up? — Yes.

  7749. Did not you think it very curious that so many rockets should be sent up so
close to one another? — Yes. [A leading question – Gibson testified to seeing three rockets in up to an hour]

  7750. Did you say anything to him about going to see the Captain and saying this seemed to be a serious matter? — No, he told me he had reported it to the Captain and the Captain had told him to keep calling her up.

  7751. Did Mr Stone say this vessel seemed to be in distress? — No; he said there must be something the matter with her.

  7752. Did he make any remarks to you as to the Captain taking no action? Did he say anything to you at the time? — No.

  7753. Are you sure? — Yes.

  7754. [The Commissioner] Did you say anything to yourself about it? — I only thought the same that he thought.

  7755. What was that? — That a ship is not going to fire rockets at sea for nothing, and there must be something the matter with her.

  7756. Then you thought it was a case of some kind of distress? — Yes.

  [The Commissioner] We are anxious to get the other witnesses from this steamer into the box, and unless you have something really important, I suggest you should finish.

  [Mr Harbinson] I have finished, my Lord.

  Gibson at the end thus agrees to ‘some kind of distress’, a phrase that is not his own. But 219 questions earlier he had testified that the rockets had conveyed to him that the ship was ‘Not exactly in distress Sir’ (questions 7537 and 7538), but that ‘everything was not all right with her’. Crucially, of course, Gibson offered no opinion of distress in his report to the captain – he merely reported that the ship had fired rockets and disappeared in another direction. He certainly did not mention any ‘list to starboard’. And at no time did Gibson, whatever might have been ‘not all right’ with the departing steamer, consider that she may have been anything other than a tramp steamer, an opinion he voiced repeatedly.

  7546. You thought she was a tramp steamer, and you had seen her side light at what you thought was between four and seven miles away? — Yes.

  7795. [Mr Robertson Dunlop] How long have you been at sea? — Three and a half years.

  7796. And have you seen passenger steamers? — Yes.

  7797. Large passenger steamers? — Yes.

  7798. And medium-size steamers? — Yes.

  7799. Seen them at night? — Yes.

  7800. And have you been able to tell the difference between a large liner like the Titanic and a tramp? — Yes.

  7801. From the appearance of her lights? — Yes.

  7802. From the height of her lights? — No, from the quantity.

  CAPTAIN’S VERSION OF THE VISIT

  A brief recap of what Gibson said – he claimed that he reported to the captain that the steamer had disappeared to the south-west and had fired altogether eight rockets. Lord replied: ‘Alright, are you sure there were no colours in them?’ Gibson said they were all white. Lord then asked the time and was told it was 2.05 by the wheelhouse clock. After this perfunctory conversation, Gibson returned to the bridge.

  Lord’s first description of this conversation was equally perfunctory (US Inquiry, p.729):

  I have a faint recollection of the apprentice opening the room door; opening it and shutting it. I said, ‘What is it?’ He did not answer and I went to sleep again. I believe the boy came down to deliver me the message that this steamer had steamed away from us to the southwest, showing several of these flashes or white rockets; steamed away to the southwest.

  There is an obvious difference here, insofar as Lord says he heard nothing. At the British Inquiry, Lord’s failure of recollection was put sorely to the test. But he held to his version of events eight times, as listed below:

  Questions 6859–62

  ‘I have a recollection of Gibson opening and closing the chart-room door some time between half-past 1 and half past 4. I said, “What is it?” and he did not reply; he closed the door’.

  Questions 6893–96

  Lord said he learned the next morning from the second officer that Gibson was sent down for the purpose of telling him the vessel had fired ‘several rockets’ and had ‘steamed away’. Lord said this was the message he understood was given to Gibson by Stone.

  Question 6896

  ‘I am putting to you, you know, that what was said was the vessel had disappeared? — No, it was never mentioned, “disappeared”, to me’.

  Question 6924

  ‘What was the message that Gibson brought down to you then? — That morning? I did not get it, not to my knowledge. I never got it’.

  Questions 6950–54

  ‘I heard Gibson open and close the door and said, “What is it?” He did not say anything. I had been asleep. I was wakened up by the opening of the door – the banging of the door’.

  Questions 7075–79

  ‘I do not recollect Gibson coming into the room. I said, “What is it?” I cannot tell what time it was’.

  Question 7179–7285

  7179. …I have no recollection of Gibson saying anything. I do not remember him saying anything. He did not say anything to me as far as I know.

  7280. I want to put this to you: Did not the boy deliver the message to you, and did not you enquire whether they were all white rockets? — I do not know; I was asleep.

  7281. Think. This is a very important matter. — It is a very important matter. I recognise that.

  7282. It is much better to tell us what happened, Captain? — He came to the door, I understand. I have spoken to him very closely since. He said I opened my eyes and said, ‘What is it?’ and he gave the message, and I said, ‘What time is it?’ and he told me, and then I think he said I asked him whether there were any colours in the light [sic – singular].

  7283. That is what the boy has said to you. You have questioned him a good many times since? — Yes, I have questioned him since.

  The Commissioner: Is he telling the truth? — Is the boy telling the truth?

  7285. Yes. — I do not know. I do not doubt it for a moment.

  Questions 7287–88

  ‘I was asleep. I very likely was half-awake. I have no recollection of this apprentice saying anything to me at all that morning’.

  At this next point, Captain Lord appears to agree with the proposition that he could have asked questions, even though he has no recollection of it:

  7289. Why did you ask whether they were white rockets? — I suppose this was on account of the first question they asked, whether they were company signals.

  7290. Do just think? — Company signals usually have some colours in them.

  7291. So that if they were white it would make it quite plain to you they were distress signals? — No, I understand some companies have white.

  7292. Do really try and do yourself justice? — I am trying to do my best.

  And finally, for an eighth time:

  7368. Did you sleep soundly? — I must have done.

  7369. If the apprentice came to your room subsequently, are you conscious of anything that he said to you or what you said to him? — All I recollect saying is, ‘What is it?’

  7370. Did you remain asleep until 4.30? — Until 4.30.

  The next morning, subsequent to finding out about the Titanic sinking, Lord questioned Second Officer Stone.

  7374. What was his [Stone’s] explanation to you? — He said that he had sent down and called me; he had sent Gibson down, and Gibson had told him I was awake and I had said, ‘All right, let me know if anything is wanted’. I was surprised at him not getting me out, considering rockets had been fired. He said if they had been distress rockets he would most certainly have come down and called me himself, but he was not a little bit worried about it at all.

  7375. If they had been distress rockets he would have called you? — He would have come down and insisted upon my getting up.

  7376. And was it his view that they were not distress rockets? — That was apparently his view.

  And here is the essence of Gibson’s visit at 2.05 a.m. It undoubtedly happened, but it was simply an in
formative mission. Gibson was to tell Lord the ship had fired eight rockets and steamed away. Nothing in particular was sought from the captain, but any instructions he might choose to give would be followed. Stone was giving final news of the steamer Lord had been interested in from the start, specifying that he should be told if ‘she moved or came closer’. The captain was certainly not being roused to the point of getting up. He was not being asked to come to the bridge. Captain Lord had been awake since 7 a.m. the previous morning – ‘When did you go on duty on the Sunday morning? — I got up the usual time – 7 o’clock in the morning’ (7346) – and had completed a seventeen-hour day. And Gibson did not lay a hand on Lord to shake him awake – unlike Chief Officer Stewart, who hours later would jostle the shoulder of Wireless Operator Cyril Evans in a similar bedside visit, to make sure of waking him up and getting him to function. Gibson’s account of the conversation, when he returned to Stone, meanwhile also indicates that the exchange ended puzzlingly, in a rather open-ended way, with no decision being taken. Yet there is one curious piece of evidence which suggests that Captain Lord may indeed not have been in much position to take in what he was being told. It comes from the evidence of Herbert Stone:

  7954. Is that all? — Then he [Gibson] told me that as he shut the door he heard the Captain say something – what, he was not quite certain about.

  7955. Did Gibson then remain on the bridge with you? — Yes.

  This fragment is very telling. Here is the apprentice officer leaving the captain’s room, and he hears the captain say something. He cannot decipher it, being outside the door. But Gibson does not re-enter and ask the captain what it was he said. This is very curious. The master is potentially issuing an order or asking a question – Gibson does not know – but he does not feel the need to ascertain exactly what it is the captain is saying. Why not?